Black Student Union (BSU) is more than just a social organization for students of color. Black Student Union is a catalyst for social change and cultural commemoration. As a former member, I feel very fortunate to have been a part of such an organization at a pivotal time in American history- The #BlackLivesMatter movement.

In discussing the actions being taken by members of the Civil Rights movement, my colleagues and I realized that some of these members were everyday college students like us. We then learned we didn’t have to be superhuman to affect change. All we had to do was stand up, stand together, and stand in truth.

With the start of a new academic year, thousands of students of color arrive at their respective college campus. Some are new bright-eyed freshmen eager to make their mark and others are returning upperclassmen ready to get the next generation ready.

The College campus has become the battleground for social change. From the legendary campus sit-ins that took place everywhere from Kent State to UCLA, actions taken by the students of these colleges prove that young people have the biggest influence when approached with a social problem.

Since the mid- late 20^th Century, heightened by the large influx of African Americans receiving college degrees, the Black collegiate experience has become subject for important scholarship.

For Black America, higher education has been yet another arena for radical revision concerning the presence of Black students. At colleges from University of Wisconsin- Madison to City College New York, a series of protests commenced, connecting the Black Campus movement to the larger Black Power movement.

Forty years later, history once again has repeated itself.

In 2015, when news of the University of Missouri- Columbia protests broke, the spirit of the Black campus movement that took place in the early-mid 1970’s was reborn. Missouri, known for being the site of the killing of Michael Brown, a Ferguson native, and the subsequent protest that followed occurring one year earlier. By 2015, the #BlackLivesMatter movement found itself coming out of the streets and into the college classrooms. Racist activities done by select student of the university began to be under fire by many minority students.

Nearly one year later, the events such as the famous Johnathan Butler hunger strike and the university football team, made up largely of Black students, refusing to practice or play, leading up to the subsequent resignation of university president Tim Wolfe marked a significant event for both the students of the Missouri and the members of #BlackLivesMatter. Their victory reclaimed and reimagined the legacy of the Black campus movement forty years prior.

If there is anything to be learned from the work of these Missouri students it is that the spirit of the Black Campus movement is still alive. While not every Black Student Union group is like the former, it does not mean they can’t have the same influence on their own university.